By Ntombi Mhlongo
Harmonising road transport regulatory instruments has been cited as the perfect groundwork to lay for the effective implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
This was during a continental workshop organised by the African Union Commission (AUC) in partnership with the European Union (EU)-funded Tripartite Transport and Transit Facilitation Programme (TTTFP) which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, to examine the harmonisation of Africa’s road transport regulatory frameworks.
The workshop, which began on April 18 and ended on April 21, was intended to assess progress on the harmonisation and implementation of Vehicle Load Management (VLM) in Africa, exchanging best practices on policies and standards while soliciting realistic proposals for a continental VLM strategy.
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Opening the workshop, AUC Acting Head of Transport and Mobility Division, Mr Eric Ntagengerwa said, “Road transport facilitates roughly 80 per cent of trade on the continent, and demand is expected to rise significantly in the coming years, aided by AfCFTA, which is why we need to increase the efficiency and capacity of transportation infrastructure and services for the movement of goods and people within and beyond borders”.
He said this will, in turn, stimulate economies by allowing African enterprises to expand and enter new markets, increase productivity, generate jobs, accelerate industrialisation, and contribute to the achievement of Agenda 2063 aspirations, goals, and objectives.
Also speaking at the gathering was Petra Pereyra, EU Ambassador to Botswana and SADC, who shared insight on the EU’s experience in integrating transport systems across the EU region.
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According to the SADC website, the first day of the workshop focused on the causes and effects of vehicle overloading across the continent, emerging technologies and innovations, and continental initiatives on road transport and transit facilitation, as well as lessons learned from these programmes to unlock the potential of AfCFTA, which is dependent on factors such as the removal of Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade (NTBs).
TTTFP is an EU-funded Programme whose key result areas include the development of adoption of vehicle load management strategy, adoption of a framework to harmonise driver, vehicle and operator standards, implementation of ICT-based road transport systems to improve regulation and law enforcement and improvement of corridor efficiency based on the SMART corridors concept.
